


I, Snarl

by RodimusDoctor



Category: Transformers (Bay Movies), Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers: Age of Extinction - Fandom
Genre: Dinobots, Gen, Legendary Knights, Pre-Earth Transformers, Science Fiction, Transformers Movie Universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-25
Updated: 2016-09-26
Packaged: 2018-08-17 06:00:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 5,009
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8132987
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RodimusDoctor/pseuds/RodimusDoctor
Summary: Snarl, Dinobot and former Legendary Knight of Cybertron, lives a lonely existence of self-imposed exile. His home is an asteroid in deep space, far from any known civilization but not far enough to escape his past. When a squad of Steeljaw drones launches a surprise attack, however, Snarl gets pulled back into the affairs of the universe. A Knight-devoted Autobot named Skyblast comes to his aid, and tells him the bad news: the bounty hunter Lockdown wants to collect the full set of Legendary Knights, and he's come for Snarl. Is this the chance for the disgraced Knight to find redemption?





	1. The Invasion of Nowhere

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Merc Vs Metal: Sideswipe Gets 'Pooled](https://archiveofourown.org/works/7094500) by [RodimusDoctor](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RodimusDoctor/pseuds/RodimusDoctor). 



> I, Snarl takes place in the Transformers cinematic universe, specifically before the events of Age of Extinction. I like to do stories about characters created for the toy line, but not actually seen on screen. Snarl has always been my favourite Dinobot - he was the first one I bought way back in 1985. Skyblast is not a movie toy - Air Raid would have been more appropriate - but I needed that type of character and his name is just awesome. This story also ties in with the Merc Vs. Metal series, at least as far as Lockdown and his mission are concerned.

Call me Snarl. It’s as good a name as any. Sums me up pretty good.

I was having my usual type of solar cycle – not that the words solar and cycle had any meaning where I lived. My home was an asteroid in the middle of empty space, as far from anything resembling civilization as I could get. I mine thermal energy from the core, and process it into energon. I maintain the mine, and I power down. That’s it. My entire existence, right there.

I had a ship. It’s how I got to this rock. I had no plans to leave this place, so I abandoned it to make planetfall with the equipment I needed and nothing more. That ship might still be out there, powered down, waiting for me to reclaim it. If it hasn’t been smashed by space junk by now. Every now and then I’m tempted to go find it.

Then I remember why I’m here, and put such indulgent thoughts out of my mind.

It takes a century for the geo-thermal processor to produce a cube of energon. Every 100 years I power on, perform maintenance on the equipment, ingest the energon if I require it and store it if I don't, then power down again. Sometimes I stay active for a few days, explore my rock, look up at the stars, and think. Not so much any more. I know this rock pretty well, the last interesting change in the starscape was a supernova over ten thousand years ago, and what is there to think about?

Only one thing. And I’d rather not.

It was the 76th time I’d roused myself when something out of the ordinary happened. I’d finished some minor repairs to the energon generator, and performed standard maintenance on the shield, when I noticed there’d been a blip on the proximity scanner. A fairly large something. The system is rigged to wake me if anything larger than my ship is detected on an intercept or collision course. Anything with enough mass and velocity that my shield wouldn’t be able to deflect. This thing, whatever it was, had skimmed the furthermost edge of my scanner’s reach, but had made no move toward my rock. Probably space junk, then.

But possibly not.

I looked up. I’m very familiar with the constellations in this sector by now, so the appearance of several new “stars” was curious, to say the least.

I re-checked the proximity scanner – nothing. Or, rather, nothing that it could detect. I looked back at the sky. Zoomed in. Saw several metal shapes.

I was going to have visitors.

The question of whether they’d be friend or foe was answered immediately; each metal shape unleashed a hail of rockets. At the same time, my scanner sounded an alert. It seems the rockets were something it could detect, even if the ones firing them were not.

The shield was on and turned to maximum power. As an extra precaution, I transformed into my beast mode; in that form I have more armour protection.

Turned out I didn’t need it. The rockets made a mess of the rock’s surface, but exploded harmlessly off of the shield. That told me something about my attackers – they were drones. If you are built to avoid detection, why announce yourself with such a useless attack? Either their ordnance had phase-shift technology to get through my shield, or the ones firing them had only a basic AI intelligence.

Trouble was, what they lacked in brains or stealth, they made up for in sheer numbers. And, it would turn out, ferocity.

All around me, they landed. Beasts, all of them, feral and lupine. As soon as they touched down they sprang at me, attacking with tooth and claw.  
I suppressed a chuckle. Not only is my beast form better armoured, but it is much better suited to brutal combat. My tail utilizes my weapon of choice – a mace – to devastating effect, as the first of the attackers discovered to their (short-lived) peril.

My optimism and amusement were also short-lived. While individually those creatures posed little threat, there were a lot of them. And not all were taking the direct physical approach; a few touched down and then reconfigured into gun turrets. I would smack a couple of the creatures away, then take a couple of energy blasts from the turrets, and then more feral beasts would pounce on me. It was only a matter of time before a shot made it past my armour and I’d take a serious injury.

I realized I might not win this one. I was fine with that; I deserved to die. But I wasn’t about to make it easy for them.

I leapt at the nearest turret, swinging my tail in an arc. It got off a shot before I crushed it – right in the joint of my left foreleg. The pain of both the blast and landing on the injured limb slowed me considerably; my armour took another shot, and then the creatures were upon me again. And they wasted no time going for my wound.

I screamed, then reconfigured. The damaged forelimb fell from what was now my left leg. My tail became my mace; I swatted away the creatures with one hand and pulled them off of me with the other. One of them I threw at the other turret, knocking it over and forcing it to transform back to its beast form. I gained nothing from the move; the one I’d thrown recovered and became a turret to replace his ally.

I wielded my mace and hammered at my attackers, reducing their numbers significantly. I hoped if I stayed in motion, the turrets would have a harder time locking on to me. I also thought, for the first time in many millennia, how much easier combat would be if I had a projectile weapon.

Dangerous thinking, that. It was, after all, why I was here.

More of the creatures retreated and became turrets. I managed to stomp on one while swinging my mace at another, but then they all started firing randomly. Not bothering with a target lock. I evaded most of them, but a couple struck home. I reeled from the impacts, only to receive several more.

I reconfigured, and let my armoured plates protect me. I also lashed out with my tail, destroying another turret. The others picked their shots well, targeting my limb joints. Then half of their force transformed to beast mode and swarmed me once more.

It was then I realized I might not win this one. They had numbers, and they would wear me down. It was not the way I’d pictured my death; I’d hoped for an honourable battle with a warrior of equal stature and mettle. Defeated by drones was nothing of the sort.

Perhaps, I thought, I deserve it.

Then pain overtook me – the beasts bit into my wounds and disabled my limbs – and all thoughts of honour dissipated. I tried to reconfigure but couldn’t; I fell flat on the ground, helpless. The turrets worked to finish me, and I hoped it would all end soon.

But it did not. From above came a blizzard of fire that destroyed the turrets before they had a chance to transform and move. The beasts on me sprang off and regrouped to deal with the new threat. My saviour made another pass and unleashed a hell every bit as devastating, then transformed and landed on the rock before me to finish the job. Arm cannons obliterated most of the remaining enemy; the last one he struck down with a fist. He picked up its limp form and turned to me.

He was a bipedal robotic life form, almost certainly cybertronian. Sleek white metal, a third my height, wings on his arms and thrusters in his legs. Plus, he had an air of youth about him. I had never seen him before, but he clearly knew me.

“You’re Snarl, aren’t you?” he said as he approached closer.

I would have responded, but my wounds overcame me and I fell into stasis lock.


	2. A Legendary Knight's Shame

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Snarl awakens to discover he's been patched up by an Autobot named Skyblast. The two travel to Snarl's energon mine, and Skyblast fills him in about Lockdown and the other Legendary Knights. Snarl then chooses to reveal his secret shame to the younger robot.

I came back on-line a couple of standard cycles later, still in beast mode. My wounds had been patched and were healing nicely. I remained in the same spot where I’d fallen; there was evidence I’d been dragged a very short distance before my saviour had given up. I don’t blame him – I’m over three times his size and likely quadruple his weight.

My saviour, the cybertronian with the wings on his arms and thrusters in his legs, stood nearby. He held a blaster, and seemed intent on the sky.

“Are more coming?” I asked. My saviour seemed startled, and anxious not to show it.

“Those Steeljaw units? Not that I can see,” he replied. “And my optics are top-notch. I think you’re safe for the time being.”

“That’s good,” I said, “because I don’t think I’ll be much help for a while.”

“I patched your wounds, gave you some of my energon,” he told me. “You’ll be up and around in no time, I’m sure. Legends like you can’t be put down!”

Legend? Then I remembered he’d said my name just before I’d gone offline. He knew who I was.

Time to make that mutual.

“What’s your name, soldier?”

“Oh, right, I haven’t introduced myself! I’m Skyblast,” he said. “It’s an honour to meet you, your… your…”

“Snarl will do,” I said. I moved to change position. It hurt, but not as much as I’d feared it would.

“You see? You’re already up on your feet,” Skyblast said. “I tried to pull you back to your shielded mine site, but…”

“…but I’m a big heavy slab of scrap,” I said. “Don’t blow a circuit, kid. You did fine.”

“I’ve also been shooting meteors. Well, I would have done, if there’d been any. But since I couldn’t get you to safety…”

“What’s a young bot like you doing out here?” I asked, mostly to cut him off, although I was curious. “How did you even find me, here?”

“I’ve been tracking Lockdown,” Skyblast said. “He’s a bounty hunter. He captured all your friends.”

“What?” I said.

And he told me the story of what had become of my former fellow Knights. The short version was, they’d been rounded up by this Lockdown character. Slog, Scorn and Skullcruncher had been stalked individually, but Grimlock, Swoop and Slag had been betrayed by their newest member – a ‘bot named Slash.

“Lockdown tortured him, and he broke,” Skyblast said. “Led the others into a trap, in exchange for mercy.”

I nodded. Time was, I’d have called Slash a coward for giving in to pain. Now, though…

“Where do you figure into all of this?”

“Me? Oh, I’ve been hunting Lockdown for ages,” he said. “Well, that’s not entirely true. I was only tracking him because… this is embarrassing… I wanted to find you.”

“Me?”

“Not just you. All of the Legendary Knights. You guys are my heroes…” his voice trailed off, and his facial plating took on a crimson hue. I smiled to myself – the ‘bot was a Leggie.

“Well, your quest is ongoing,” I told him. “I haven’t been a Legendary Knight in eons.”

I gave transformation a try. It was painful and slow – like the death I deserved – but I managed it.

“Take it easy, you’re still healing!” Skyblast rushed to my side and tried to take my arm. He could barely reach my hand!

“We need to get back under my shield,” I said, and started walking. It hurt a lot, but I tried not to show it. I was in the presence of a Leggie – a devoted fan of the Legendary Knights – and I had an image to maintain. I hadn’t lost all my pride. Or ego.

“About what you said,” he asked when we were back under my shield’s cover, “about my quest being ongoing…”

Here it comes, I thought.

“I know you left the Knights…”

“Left!” I barked. “Hah. You’re very diplomatic, kid, but we both know I didn’t just decide to leave one sunny day.”

“Yeah,” he replied, not meeting my optics. “I just...”

“You want to know why I was banished,” I said, “don’t you?”

“I want to understand,” Skyblast said.

I sat down – I’d been dying to ever since I’d stood up – and reached for my mace.

“You see this, kid?”

“The Mace of Spikes!” he replied. I’d forgotten it had been called that. “It becomes your tail when you transform to beast mode.”

“What kind of weapon would you call it?” I asked him.

“A brutal one. And powerful, of course. And, like all Legendary Knight weapons, its function is hand-to-hand combat. As per the Knight Code.”

“Exactly,” I said, hefting the mace and slapping my palm with it. “And what kind of weapon isn’t it?”

“A projected energy weapon.”

“Very good.”

“Knights don’t use guns,” Skyblast went on. “Destroying an enemy from a distance is dishonourable.”

“A fine code to have,” I said, “provided your enemy doesn’t use them, either. Can you guess what I did?”

Skyblast looked stunned.

“You didn’t!”

“I did.”

“But using a gun…”

“…was the only way to save the colony on Peltar,” I told him.

“I heard about that,” Skyblast said. “An alien ship was trying to cyberform the planet. You guys stopped them, or tried to…”

“Oh, we stopped them,” I said, sticking my mace back into storage.

“But you didn’t save the colony. It was destroyed. And most of the Knights were injured…”

“Of course they were injured!” I snapped. “Swoop and Scorn were lucky to be alive. A bunch of hand weapons against a starship? With plasma cannons? If I hadn’t…”

I paused, walked over to the control panel to check the scans.

“Hadn’t what?” the kid prompted me.

“The colony had ion cannons stationed around its perimeter. Good ones. The invaders targeted and took those out first. But one of them remained mostly intact. Gunner threw himself in front of the blast – gave his life to save his weapon! I decided there and then he wouldn’t have died in vain.  
“The invading ship - exactly like ours, the Knight’s Chariot, by the way - was almost in firing position. They had these seeds… they’d drop them on a planet’s surface and turn the ground – and everything on it – into a Cybertronian alloy. They were moments away from wiping out the colony.  
“So I picked up that ion cannon and fired. Aimed for a vulnerability I’d spotted in their engines - an armour panel Swoop had managed to pry loose before he got shot. Turns out I’m something of a marksman – I hit the target with my first and only shot. Problem was, my shot was too good. It set off a chain reaction in the ship, igniting multiple explosions all over. It was a fantastic sight to see.”

“But… the colony…?”

“The ship fell from the sky and crashed right into it. Then it exploded. Killed everyone. We were the only survivors.”

“Oh,” Skyblast said. “But… you had to, right? I mean, what else could you have done?”

“I have been asking myself that same question for thousands of years,” I said. “We could have evacuated the colony. The invaders didn’t care about them, they just wanted the planet. Instead, I chose to ignore our code of honour in favour of a quick and easy solution. And the colony paid the price.” I hung my head, which is why I saw the danger on my early warning system.

“You couldn’t have known what would happen,” Skyblast said. “At least you tried to…”

“Quiet,” I said. “Skyblast, what kind of ship does Lockdown travel in?”

“Oh, that’s the worst bit. Didn’t I tell you? He captured the Knight’s Chariot, locked all the Knights up in it… why?”

I activated the holoprojector, and an image from the long-range scanners hovered into view. It was a large and round ship, just the way I remembered it. Just like the one that had destroyed the Peltar colony.

“Oh no,” Skyblast said. “Lockdown’s found you.”


	3. The Arrival of Lockdown

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Snarl and Skyblast take off into space to confront the bounty hunter Lockdown.

The Knight’s Chariot approached my asteroid slowly, in no hurry. After all, we weren’t going anywhere. Skyblast could’ve, of course, but he refused to leave me. Not that it mattered.

Lockdown hadn’t come for him.

And he hadn’t come to kill me, either. If he had, he’d have blown my hunk of rock apart already.

No, he wanted to capture me alive, to add me to his collection.

I was not about to let that happen. After all, if what Skyblast had told me was true, the other Knights were imprisoned in that ship. I had the chance to rescue them, and make a small atonement for my past.

“Lockdown is tough,” Skyblast told me as we watched the Chariot draw near, “but he’s not much bigger than me. Nowhere near your size. You shouldn’t have any trouble taking him out.”

“Perhaps,” I said, “but he managed to capture the others.”

“Yeah…” my younger companion said. Seemed he hadn’t considered that.

“How will he come?” I asked him. “Direct physical assault, warrior to warrior? Or will he try to disable me from the Chariot?” There’d been no weapons systems the last time I’d been aboard, but I doubted Lockdown would have left it that way.

“I don’t know,” Skyblast told me. “I didn’t see him take the others. But the ship has an antigrav beam now. He could just snatch you.”

That idea held no appeal for me. To be rendered helpless, taken without a fight…

“Let’s take the fight to him,” I said. “I have something to do first. And then, Skyblast, I shall require your help…”

 

The highest point on my rock is an outcropping that forms – if one is so inclined – a ramp. I ran along the rock toward the edge and flung myself off with all my strength.

My asteroid is small, relatively speaking, but it still had enough gravity to prevent me achieving escape velocity on my own. I would fall back down halfway around the rock – a fair distance, but I’d still fall. 

But that was where Skyblast came in. He swooped up to meet me and I grabbed hold of his right wing. With the extra boost he provided, we achieved escape velocity and left my asteroid behind.

I actually felt a little wistful. It had been my home for so very, very long, after all. Then again, it was a self-imposed exile. Now I had the chance to do something productive. Perhaps even honourable. At any rate, there was no going back.

I had made certain of that.

Skyblast gave his jets more energon, and we soared up and away toward the Knight’s Chariot. It didn’t take long – the ship was coming toward us even as we moved to intercept him.

I’d cautioned my companion to refrain from opening fire, at least until we had the enemy in sight. Lockdown could have easily destroyed us at any time, so I was gambling he wanted me alive and whole. It was unlikely he would fire on Skyblast, as he’d risk hitting me as well. Nevertheless, it would not be smart to provoke him.

We’d almost reached the hull when Lockdown finally revealed himself. A panel in the side of the Chariot opened, and a very large mech climbed out. Much larger than I’d been led to expect.

“Is that…?”

“No!” said Skyblast. “Wait, yes! Yes it is. But he’s got an Apex Armour Battlesuit.”

I zoomed in, and could see a smaller bot’s head and shoulders peeking out of a hatch at the top of the torso, beneath the helm. It was my first time seeing the notorious bounty hunter, and I wasn’t particularly impressed.

“Can I shoot him now?” Skyblast asked, practically pleading.

“Set me down on the Chariot,” I replied, “and I shall challenge him to…”

“So. You are the lost Knight.”

The voice was a low sneer, projected to my comm system in the same way Skyblast and I had been communicating. I had no doubt it was Lockdown speaking; he seemed as impressed with me as I was with him.

“The Creators want you back,” he went on, “and I intend to please them.” As he spoke, I noticed a reconfiguration taking place with his face. “But I have no need for the brat.”

Too late, I realized his head had become a sniper cannon. He fired, and hit Skyblast dead-centre. The Autobot spun away, out of my grip, and exploded. I had a half-second to consider that my new friend was gone.

Then the blast wave from his ruptured spark hit me, propelling me even faster toward the Knight’s Chariot. I transformed and curled my beast form into a ball, and smashed into the hull armour-plates first. 

The impact was painful but worth it - I tore a hole right into the ship. The atmosphere inside (what does a cybertronian need that for?) began to escape while I tumbled end-over-end across what I assumed was still the bridge. Lockdown had clearly done a lot of reconfiguring.

I lay still for a few moments, stunned. The scream of escaping air ceased – most likely an emergency force-field had gone up around and over the hole I’d created. Then there was a loud clanking of heavy machinery. I raised my head to look, and saw that Lockdown had climbed back inside and sealed the hatch behind him.

This was to be it, the confrontation between disgraced Knight and disgraceful mercenary. I forced myself to stand back up as Lockdown closed the distance between us.


	4. Honour Vs Apex

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Snarl fights Lockdown! What more do I need to say?

“You just couldn’t surrender nicely, could you?” Lockdown said, approaching me in his Apex Battlesuit. “You Legendary Knights are all the same. All beast, no brain.”

“And you,” I shot back, “are a warrior without honour. A coward, too afraid to fight without enhancements.”

“I use whatever will grant me victory,” Lockdown said. “Honour doesn’t pay. But you will.” So saying, he launched a barrage of rockets at me.

I had no time to avoid them, and there was no cover I could seek. The only thing I could do was take the hits and hope that my armour was sufficient. I also charged forward, something I was sure Lockdown wouldn’t expect.

The missiles hit but I kept coming, making minor adjustments to ensure they hit armour plates instead of joints.

I was now too close for Lockdown to use projectile weapons. He took a defensive stance, and waited for me to make a clumsy attack. My choices in beast form were limited: I could rush him; leap at him; or try to tail-swipe him. All three attacks, I was certain, he was ready for.

Good thing I had a fourth choice. I came at him and swung my tail; as expected, he leapt up to avoid it while preparing to hammer me with a fist. But I was already transforming, using the momentum from my swing while getting an arm up to block his counterattack. I kept moving with the swing, batting his arm away with my left hand before delivering a kick with my right leg. It worked; I had him off-balance and vulnerable, and my kick sent him flying across the bridge.

I charged after him, pressing my attack. My mace was ready in my hand; as Lockdown rose, I swung and smashed his Apex’s right shoulder. And yanking my weapon back out did almost as much damage.

So did his left leg. I expected a punch as he turned to face me, so the kick caught me – and my midsection – by surprise. I fell back, rolled with it and transformed. Rammed my tail into the Apex’s legs. Lockdown stumbled, and I leapt at him. Slammed into him with all my weight and toppled him over.

I actually thought I was doing well. I’d forgotten I was dealing with a warrior without honour.

Without warning, I was set upon by a dozen of those Steeljaw drones. They found my joints. They found the cracks in my armour made by the rocket attack. The pain was exquisite, and distracting. Lockdown threw me off of him, then drove a punch into one of my forelegs. I howled in agony as the limb was rendered limp and useless.

I pushed myself off with my hind legs and curled into a ball to roll, and managed to crush a couple of drones and swatting a third with my tail. The drone became impaled on one of my trail-spikes, weighting it down.

Lockdown was back on his feet. He still had the use of both his Apex battlesuit’s arms; I clearly hadn’t done enough damage. Lockdown grabbed me by the tail and pulled me off my feet, swung me around and then threw me across the bridge.  
I transformed and landed on my feet, assumed a defensive posture, mace in hand. The Steeljaw drones, who’d all leapt off when Lockdown had grabbed me, chased me across the bridge and resumed their attack.

And Lockdown fired more rockets. I swept up a bunch of Steeljaws with my mace and used them as flak, and they took the brunt of the missile barrage. I charged, mace ready to ward off missiles and Steeljaws alike.

Lockdown’s head had become a sniper cannon again. The rockets had been a diversion while he’d effected the transformation. He fired, and the blast hit my chest and tore right through. It missed my spark, but it was supposed to. Lockdown wanted me disabled, not dead.

And it worked. I staggered back and fell against the wall, not far from the hole where I’d originally burst in. I collapsed to the floor, innermost energon leaking around my hand as I tried to hold it in. The Steeljaws surrounded me but did not attack. They didn’t need to.

Lockdown approached. Casually. Taking his time. Just like his ship had approached my asteroid. I tried to rise and failed. His shot had been perfect. I was done.

Almost. I still had one final card left to play, and I played it.

“You fought well,” Lockdown said as he loomed over me, “but this outcome was never in doubt.”

“Spare me your patronizing,” I said, looking up at him. “You killed one of the bravest sparks I have ever known, as if he were nothing!”

“He was nothing,” Lockdown said.

“Soon we will be, too,” I told him.

Lockdown, who had been reaching for me, paused.

“What have you done?” he said, then he half-turned away. “Computer! Analyze the asteroid for an energy buildup.”

His computer would no doubt report that a buildup of energy was indeed taking place in the mine inside my rock. I’d rigged a detonator to my energon cubes before I’d left, and set the drill to bore straight down to the core. I had prepped it as a last resort, because the blast would likely destroy the ship and us with it… including my fellow Knights. I knew they would rather die than remain prisoners, of course. If I couldn’t defeat Lockdown in combat, I would at least ensure his reign of terror would end.

And so I’d transmitted the destruct signal. Lockdown might have learned of that, and of the other pertinent details of the situation, but he didn’t. He was distracted by my mace in his body. Rallying my remaining strength, I lunged forward and smashed my weapon into the APEX battlesuit’s chest, right where Lockdown himself was housed. He roared in anger and pain; one of my mace spikes had definitely punctured some part of him.

My triumph was short-lived. Lockdown grabbed me with his left hand and slammed me against the wall, and his right arm transformed. A cannon formed where his hand had been, and he pressed it against my torso. Apparently he wasn’t interested in capturing me alive any more.

And, apparently he’d forgotten the damage I’d done to that arm. When he tried to shoot, the energy exploded out of those wounds in all directions. The Apex armour was torn apart, and the blast crushed me against the wall. I didn’t see what had become of Lockdown, and I was in no shape to look for him – I was barely functional.

Then the blast wave from my exploding asteroid hit the ship, and I went back into stasis lock for a very long time.


	5. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The aftermath of the battle, and the asteroid explosion, leaves Snarl in bad shape and lost in space.

I came back on-line in stages. My entire body hurt, and I wasn’t even sure how much of my body remained. I did know one thing for certain, though – I was no longer aboard Lockdown’s ship.

I was drifting in space.

Internal repairs worked hard to restore functionality to my major systems, but it was a hopeless task. I’d lost too much energon. After a time, when I’d regained the use of one optic sensor, I switched the repairs off and put all remaining fuel into life support.

There was nothing around me. No rock, no planet, no ship. Of Lockdown, there was no trace. The blast should have destroyed his vessel, but if I had survived it was likely he had, too.

And if he lived, then the Knights might yet live. I wasn’t sure if I would ever know.

The stars were distant. I doubted I would ever reach them. It occurred to me that Skyblast could have helped me with my predicament. I had failed him.

I had failed everyone. Myself included.

I continued to drift. There was nothing else to do. Just drift, and contemplate my failure.

In time, I decided to power down and return to stasis lock. There was nothing I could do awake any more. And stasis lock held no torment, within or without.

That is my story. And I’m certain it is over. But perhaps fate has other plans for me. Maybe redemption is still out there, waiting.

Call me Snarl. It’s as good a name as any. And it’s all I have left.

The End


End file.
